How the UK differs from the US when engaging with content and booking in travel

The UK is quite different than the US when it comes to engaging with travel content and making bookings, a recent report from Expedia Media Solutions has found.

Tablets continue to grow share in the UK when compared to mobile: growth of 23% year-over-year compared with only 9% for mobile. This is due to the saturation of the mobile market, as those who want smartphones have already done so.

Indeed, in the overall population, this translates to 79% owning smartphones and 43% tablet ownership. There's more uptick still to remain on the tablet front, although that will likely stabilize below smartphones given the advantages of the smartphone's size and functionality.

The first key difference is the high levels of mobile penetration in the UK when compared to both the US and the rest of the world. It's not a major gap by any means but does indicate how the market has been developing.

Even more interesting is how this slices when only considering traveler: 75% of all UK travelers owned a mobile, tablet and a desktop in 2015, which is up from only 50% in the year before. This offers a unique opportunity to develop a cross-device approach that addresses the full life cycle of a journey.

Out of the 35 million people that interact with travel content monthly, smartphone users are most likely to be viewing travel content: 73% view travel content at some point when compared to only 55% on PC and 37% on tablets. This is a strange result, as the tablet interface is widely held to be a superior experience for engaging with travel content.

The difference among these devices is that the PC users engage with travel more often and for a longer duration — signaling that the UK is still primarily planning travel via PC. On mobile and tablets, app users are have longer average use sessions than those coming in via mobile browsers.

Finally, the UK sees a wider engagement across sub-categories in travel than in the US.